The National Assembly last evening passed the Supplementary Appro-priation Bill No.3 which gives approval to the Government of Guyana to access $1.8b from the Contingency Fund and the green light for over $24b in supplementary funding.
Minister with Responsibility For Finance, Dr Ashni Singh last week tabled Financial Paper No. 4/2023 – Supplementary Estimates (Current and Capital) – “Advances made from the Contingency Fund totaling $1,899,647,334 for the period 2023-10-01 to 2023-12-08.”
The paper caters to advances for various agencies which include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Education.
$785,808,944 from the financial paper catered for heightened security across government facilities in regions one, two, six, and nine, while $643,690,000 from the paper catered for the Guyana Sugar Corpo-ration (GuySuCo) for operational costs.
The National Assembly resolved itself into the Committee of Supply yesterday just before midday, allowing the Opposition the opportunity to pose questions to the various ministers about the amounts they were seeking for the various ministries after which the Committee of Supply approved the paper.
Following this, the financial paper was then passed in the National Assembly granting the government over $1.8b from the Contingency Fund.
Meanwhile, Minister Singh last week also tabled Financial Paper No. 5/2023 – Supplementary Estimates (Current and Capital) totaling $24,044,095,908 for the period ending 2023-12-31, which was passed in the National Assembly just around 9.22 pm after receiving approval for the Committee of Supply.
Over $12.3b from the supplementary funding caters to the agriculture sector which includes provisions for subsidies and contributions to local agencies along with additional resources for the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
Further, over $1b was sought under the Ministry of Public Works for the maintenance of roads, procurement of equipment, and for the Transport and Harbours Department.
The health sector is to receive $3.9b which will be used to finance 10% of the new New Amsterdam Public Hospital which is being constructed. The education ministry was seeking some $530.6m, while the Ministry of Home Affairs sought over $2.8b.
The Financial paper also sought over $1.2b for the Guyana Defence Force.
After both financial papers were approved last evening, the Supplemen-tary Appropriation Bill which comprised both papers was passed in the National Assembly.
A press release from the Ministry of Finance last night said that under the Office of the Prime Minister, supplementary provisions include more than $188 million for additional resources to support the Linden Electricity Company Incorporated to sustain Ituni’s operation, the Mahdia Power and Light Inc. and Kwakwani Utilities, as well as for additional inflows under the Government of India’s supported Line of Credit due to an acceleration in the delivery of solar photovoltaic systems.
The government on July 20 was granted approval for $26,532,000,000 in supplementary provisions by the National Assembly to cover projects such as the replication of the Hope drainage canal in regions five and six and other sea defence projects.
The sum was encompassed in Financial Paper No. 2 presented Singh.
Financial Paper No.1 for $4.7B was also approved on July 20 to cover advances made from the Contingency Fund.
There have been continuing concerns about the ability of the country to absorb all these funds given the shortage of skills and migration.
The 2023 budget was pegged at $781.9b, a hefty 44.1% above the 2022 figure. Just for comparison purposes the 2010 budget was pegged at $143b.
